The New Mind

Brad Donovan’s life has been shaped by violence, prison, bare knuckle fighting & choices that many people will judge at face value.  Yet when you look beneath the surface, a very different story begins to emerge.  One of childhood trauma, survival, emotional pain, ADHD, impulsivity, rejection, fear & a nervous system that’d adapted to danger from an incredibly young age. When children grow...

This week, I’m absolutely delighted to welcome back one of my favourite guests, the brilliant Emmanuel Sonubi, for his THIRD appearance on The New Mind Podcast. Emmanuel is one of the most exciting comedians in the world right now. A stand up comedian, writer & storyteller whose honesty, intelligence, warmth, & razor sharp humour have earned him a devoted following across the globe.  Havin...

This week on The New Mind, I sit with Big Nick Collins…. In one of the most emotional and powerful episodes of The New Mind Podcast, Nick opens up on the devastating loss of his soulmate and the mother of their children, Beth. Beth tragically died from a brain aneurysm at just 36 years old. Nick shares the raw reality of grief, the moment his world changed forever, and what it’s really like to nav...

What happens when grief, masculinity, pain, purpose, and identity collide in one human being? In this deeply powerful episode, I sit down with Aaron Ashton, one of the most resilient and emotionally raw voices emerging from British combat sports. Aaron’s story isn’t just about fighting…. It’s about survival and it’s about loss. It’s about what happens to the human mind and body when life pushes yo...

In this gripping episode of The New Mind Podcast, I sit down with one of Britain’s most infamous nightclub enforcers……a man who survived decades of violence, organised crime, revenge threats, shootings, and chaos on the doors of some of the UK’s roughest clubs and pubs. Bullied relentlessly as a child growing up near Ramsgate, he transformed pain into power through boxing, eventually becoming one...

This is one of the most difficult, yet important conversations we’ve ever had on The New Mind Podcast. This episode explores the reality of abuse within the home, the psychological impact of prolonged trauma, and what it takes to survive something that should never happen. This is not shared for shock. It is shared for awareness, understanding, and truth. Because silence protects harm. And truth i...

This week’s compilation episode of The New Mind brings together three men who have witnessed and lived through experiences most people will never encounter. Their stories move between shock, pain, heartbreak, and unexpected moments of humour, offering a rare and deeply human insight into resilience, survival, and the complexity of the mind. This is not just something you listen to. It is something...

What happens when three men sit down and tell the truth, without filters, without performance, and without hiding behind the versions of themselves they once needed to survive… This episode focuses on three powerful minds for conversations that go far beyond surface level insight. We explore the reality of addiction, not just as behaviour, but as a response to pain that has not yet been metabolise...

Before Lola Massingham was selling luxury homes and appearing on Netflix, her life looked very different. She grew up around domestic violence, and the man responsible later took his own life. Most people would spend years just trying to recover from experiences like that. But by the tender age of 24 Lola had stepped into one of the most competitive industries in the world, working within the worl...

Danny Harkins was convicted of serious criminal offences involving coercion, intimidation, kidnapping and violence. This episode doesn’t excuse or justify that reality…. What happened in prison changed Danny…. Punishment didn’t change him….Reading did. While in prison, Danny turned to literature, specifically the novels of Emily Brontë and Charlotte Brontë. The Brontë sisters wrote about obsession...

In this episode of The New Mind, I sit down with my friend, THE BRILLIANT Emmanuel Sonubi! Emmanuel is stand up comedian whose life was abruptly interrupted when he suffered near fatal heart failure on stage during a comedy performance in Dubai. What begins as a conversation about humour and performance unfolds into an exploration of life, identity, and the cost of living in survival mode for too...

In this episode of The New Mind Podcast, I speak with Dr Emma Offord, clinical psychologist, trauma therapist, sensory practitioner, giftedness profiler, and founder of Divergent Life. This conversation is deeply personal, beautiful and revealing.  Emma shares her own painful story.  She speaks candidly about the slow, often uncomfortable process of realisation, identity, and change.  This episode...

In this episode of The New Mind, I’m joined by Rajni. Rajni is is someone who has lived inside a body that carried pain, injury, hormonal imbalance, and emotional strain. From PCOS, a neck hernia, sciatica, and vertigo, to navigating anxiety and depression, her journey has been one of deep resilience and recalibration. What makes Rajni more powerful is her transformation. She learned how to work w...

This episode is electric!!! What a way to start the year!!! This week, I sit with Jaye Watts, also known as LettaJ…Grammy nominated recording artist. Songwriter. Gamer. Founder of Coexist Gaming. Jaye didn’t wait for permission. She didn’t fit herself into existing systems.  This EXCELLENT woman built worlds where media, entertainment and technology coexist. This is what happens when creativity me...

Jazzlyn’s life began in the shadows of harm. She was a child who learned cruelty before she ever learned safety. She endured sexual abuse, physical violence, and psychological terror. She was treated like something to be used rather than someone to be loved. She was passed from person to person, stripped of choice, then held hostage with a gun pressed to her head. Her life was reduced to a single...

Aarron Lambo is controversy in human form. And in his own words…he’s “a problem.” He provokes the system and divides the public. There are those who admire him and there are those that love to hate him. As his therapist for many years, I see a version of him that the public never gets to witness. Now he is sitting across from me on The New Mind.  He is speaking with a raw honesty you have never se...

This is one of the most powerful and confronting conversations ever shared on The New Mind. Samantha Browne was trafficked into the adult industry at sixteen. Her childhood was stolen and her trauma was normalised by a world that hides exploitation behind glamour.  In this episode she speaks with clarity, courage and compassion about what really happens behind the scenes, the psychological impact...

Today I welcome Dr Celeste Aouilk-Jaiyeola.  Her life did not begin in comfort or safety… She was born from rape.  Her very existence began in violence…Yet she became a woman defined by purpose, confidence, and brilliance.  She turned pain into progress and trauma into truth. From the start, life was not easy. Growing up surrounded by domestic violence, Celeste witnessed fear, chaos, and silence....

Justin Rollins, author of The Lost Boyz, joins me on The New Mind Podcast to reveal the shocking truth of his life and what led to ending up in prison, where his cell neighbour was child killer Ian Huntley.  In this raw and unforgettable conversation, Justin opens up about his descent into violence, addiction, and madness, and how he found redemption through facing his deepest trauma. From the cha...

In this truly inspiring, but raw and transformative episode of The New Mind Podcast, I sit down with Nina Aouilk to uncover how we can rewire the mind after deep trauma and reclaim our true power. Nina shares her harrowing story of surviving the most horrendous abuse and an attempted honour based killing…and how she transformed her pain into purpose as a global speaker and advocate for ending hono...

This is a conversation many will judge before they listen.  Stirling Cooper’s name is familiar to some for his time in the p0rn industry. However, he is now an author. A speaker. A coach. He understands strategy. Biology. Male psychology. Some may approach Stirling’s journey with scepticism…and rightly so.  This is a space historically saturated with ego, performative masculinity, and questionable...

One bad decision can change everything. In this powerful episode of The New Mind Podcast, close protection officer and youth boxing coach Marc Smith reveals the brutal truth about knife crime, and how discipline, respect, and the boxing ring can save lives before it is too late. Marc has seen the devastation of violence first-hand. Now, he is on a mission to keep young people off the streets and a...

For an entire year, ME, also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome stole Hayley’s life!!! She was trapped in a body that would not move, a mind that was fading, and a reality that felt like slow death.  Doctors offered little hope.  Every day felt like disappearing. Then Hayley did something radical. She walked away from everything she knew…her identity, even relationships…and began an uncompromising...

This is not a conversation about one woman. This is a post-mortem of a culture. The Bonnie Blue Horror Show is a psychological excavation of what happens when the theatre of digital voyeurism transforms a real-time breakdown into a global spectacle.  In this urgent and disturbing episode, I sit down with Dr Charlotte Armitage, to dissect the pathology behind the phenomenon.  We explore the machine...

For over 30 years, Craig White built warriors. As one of the world’s leading Strength & Conditioning coaches, he prepared the British & Irish Lions, Premiership giants, and multiple Rugby World Cup teams to crush their opponents. On the surface, it was success. Power. Dominance. What Craig was also seeing (and experiencing) was…men who looked invincible… but felt nothing inside. “I thought...